This invention relates in general to sewing machines and in particular to a new and useful device for use with a sewing machine for making garments with pleats.
The working of pleated skirts with so-called inverted pleats, known also as double plates and used for example also in coats or, otherwise plain, women's skirts as a fashion detail to provide additional width in the leg movement region, is rendered difficult by the fact that the seamstress cannot see the second crease to be brought into coincidence with the first crease before the sewing of the center part of a pre-ironed inverted pleat in preparing the work before sewing, because this crease edge is cancealed by the upper ply.
Not only is the handling time consuming, but despite careful and attentive working deficient results are inevitable with respect to regularity of the pleats and the obtaining of a trapeze or bell form adapted to the wearer's body form, the more so as the pleat width at the band and at the end of the seam is different.
From U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,629 (German Utility Model 80 27 080) an apparatus is known for making pleated skirts with single pleats where the position of the here single crease per pleat is marked by notches at the edge of the cut part which are made when cutting the pattern or thereafter. The known apparatus comprises a one-piece pleating bar exchangeably arranged at a support movable on guides between a charging position and a transfer position, the pleating bar having a contact edge on the side away from the operator, the cut part being placed thereon in the charging position from the side, folded so that the crease-marking notch is at the contact edge of the pleating bar and the folded plies of the cut part lie one on top of the other flush with the band.
The cut part thus prepared is then moved from the charging position of the pleating bar into the transfer position under a feed pressure strip which is lowered onto the area to be sewn next to the intended seam line, in order thereafter to pass the cut part along the stitch-forming point of a sewing machine to form a seam.
To change the pleat width, e.g. when changing the garment size, the pleating bar can be moved into several positions determined by adjustable stops.
The apparatus is very suitable for making pleated skirts with single pleats, and it is easy and convenient to reset to different pleat depths.
Since, however, the width of inverted pleats is determined mainly by the width of the pleating bar and the positioning at the sewing station, and since the seam at an inverted pleat is laid by the abutting fold edges under the center part of the visible side of the garment, the inverted pleat must, before sewing, be spread out flat so that the crease edges remain in coincidence. To do so is not possible with the apparatus according to German GM No. 80 27 080. It requires great attention and is a weak point in the marking of garments with inverted pleats because displacements can easily occur in spreading.